The present invention relates to a conveying device for conveying item, goods, luggage, parcels or the like as well as the use of such a device.
Handling of goods, parcels, luggage and the like can be a very demanding task for a number of reasons, depending especially on the situation at hand. Personnel loading or unloading such items often have to lift them onto a conveyor, or carry the items to the conveyor in order for the conveyor to be able to transport them into or out of storage. In storage facilities, such as warehouses, trucks and containers, although the work may be heavy, the position of the people carrying out the task may be relatively comfortable and, furthermore, wheeled vehicles such as fork lifts and the like may in some instances be used in order to carry and move the items about.
In other instances, especially in cargo holds of trains and in particular in air crafts, the space is extremely limited, whereby the personnel carrying out the transferral of items either from the conveying device into the tightly packaged cargo hold or vice versa often have to be in a rather uncomfortable situation lifting relatively heavy items such as luggage, packages and the like from a kneeling or severely bent-over position. This will eventually lead to injuries and is known to wear cargo personnel down.
In order to alleviate these problems, a number of solutions have been proposed in the prior art. One of these solutions is the well-known flying carpet, which is installed at the bottom of the cargo hold such that, as an item of luggage or package is introduced into the cargo hold, the items are stacked to the appropriate height and the entire stack is slid on the flying carpet into its final position in the cargo hold. As cargo often is stacked in more layers, the personnel will still have to lift the item from the conveyor onto the stack on the flying carpet and push the stack into its final position in the hold. An additional disadvantage with the flying carpet is that, as it is permanently mounted inside the air craft, the extra weight and space taken up by the flying carpet will be a relatively costly installation for the air craft carrier in the long run.
For this purpose, other devices have been developed, such as for example the conveying device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,584,376. This conveyor is sideways flexible such that it may be placed on the floor of the cargo hold, and by the personnel carrying out the loading or unloading of the cargo hold, the conveyor may be pushed or pulled into an appropriate location in relation to the cargo which needs to be stacked or removed. This device is constructed by having one centrally located single longitudinal rigid, but sideways flexible, plane onto which a number of rails are arranged, said rails having means for rotatably arranging a number of axles onto which transport rollers are provided on which the luggage will be transported.
This conveyor, although providing the advantage that it is removed from the air craft and thereby does not take up space or add extra weight to the air craft, has, however, a number of disadvantages. Firstly, the arrangement of rollers with discrete transport surfaces allows for parts of the luggage such as handles, straps, tags and the like to become stuck. Furthermore, in the crammed space of the cargo hold of an air craft the luggage must still be pushed along the conveyor towards the motorized conveyor of the conventional type which is to be arranged immediately adjacent the gate to the cargo hold.